An Experimental Study Among P-wave Velocity of Sandstones, Pressures and Water Saturation in Hami, Xinjiang, China

Abstract

Seismic velocity of rocks have a wide range of applications in regional tectonic research and shallow seismic exploration. Hami area is one of the important production bases for oil and gas in China, but there is short of seismic velocity. This paper contributes to the measurement of Pwave velocity of sandstones from Hami under different conditions by applying AutoLab 2000 computer-controlled servo hydraulic triaxial test system. Specifically, it shows the variation of seismic wave velocity of sandstones with respect to the water saturation under various pressures. The results show that P-wave velocity of sandstones is remarkably correlated linearly with the increasing water saturation and the correlation coefficient is over 0.9. Besides, the change rate between P-wave velocity and water saturation will decrease with the increasing pressure. The fitting formulas among pressures, water saturation and P-wave velocity are suitable for Hami region. Finally, we get a new method to predict water saturation by combining the experimental result with logging curve in Hami area.